Question

Describe the main events between September and December 1917 in Russia which led to the establishment of the rule of the Bolsheviks

Answer 1

Answer:

Kornilov affair: 9 September (22–27 August) 1917

The Kornilov affair: A failed coup by General Kornilov, commander of the Russian army, takes place, when he orders troops towards Petrograd to counter the threat of the Bolsheviks.

Prime Minister Kerensky presents Kornilov’s actions as an attempted right wing coup.

While the affair is short lived, it secures power for the Bolsheviks among Petrograd’s working classes, workers and soldiers, and crushes the credibility of a coalition Provisional Government between socialists and liberals due to the Kadets (Constitutional Democrats) and even Kerensky himself being implicated in the affair.

14 (1) September 1917

Russia is officially declared a republic.

October Revolution: 7–8 November (25–26 October) 1917

7 November (25) 1917: The Bolsheviks seize control of Petrograd.

8 November (26 October) 1917: The Bolsheviks take control of the Winter Palace, the last remaining holdout of the Provisional Government.

8 November (26 October) 1917: The Decrees on Land (proclaiming abolition of private property and the redistribution of the land amongst the peasantry), and Peace (proposing an immediate withdrawal of Russia from the First World War), are issued by the new Bolshevik government. Subsequent workers’ decrees outline measures for an eight-hour working day, minimum wage and the running of factories. The death penalty is abolished once again.

9 November (27 October) 1917

The Decree on the Press, the first Bolshevik censorship decree, abolishes the ‘bourgeois’ press.

25 (12) November 1917

Elections to the Constituent Assembly take place. The Socialist Revolutionaries win the largest number of seats, while the Bolsheviks win less than one-quarter of the vote.

December 1917

Each person receives 1/4 pound of bread per day. Bread and flour are still being sold openly, but for extortionate prices.

15 (2) December 1917

An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed, and fighting stops.